Un-redirecting AppData from network share back to local user profile

[doubled822]

Hi everyone! I have quite a dilemma at work. Let me explain...

Last year we rolled out all new Windows 7 systems and new domain controllers with Server 2008 R2 and redid some of our group policies. For reasons unknown, at that time I decided it was a good idea to redirect the AppData folder to the local users' share on our file server.

Now, it hasn't affected too much since then, but the #1 problem with it is that it pretty much breaks Offline Files for our laptop users. It will try to sync the AppData folder and throws tons of errors and causes problems.

A while back I found an article on TechNet that described the procedure which involved moving the affected user and computer to and fro different organizational units to redirect the appdata back to the local user profile. It's a very daunting and confusing task, but it does work if done correctly. I can't for the life of me find that article now. Hours and hours of Googling has turned up nothing.

The only thing that seems to work is to deny read permission of the GPO that has the redirection policy to the affected user, gpupdate and reboot, and delete the user's profile and start new. This of course isn't an ideal solution. Simply ticking the box "Move the contents of the folder back to local user profile upon removal" does not solve the problem.

If anyone has any ideas or knows what article I'm talking about and could point me in the right direction, I'm all ears! Thanks so much.

 

[shepe]

You will need to edit the registry keys identified in the following article to remove the folder redirection Registry Settings for Folder Redirection in Windows

But you will also need to either remove the folder redirection from the gpo applied to the ou or move the users into an ou that doesn't have the folder redirection settings applied

 

[doubled822]

You will need to edit the registry keys identified in the following article to remove the folder redirection Registry Settings for Folder Redirection in Windows

But you will also need to either remove the folder redirection from the gpo applied to the ou or move the users into an ou that doesn't have the folder redirection settings applied

I've separated the AppData redirection policy into its own GPO so that I can deny read access to those users who I've fixed it for / attempting to fix for. I hadn't thought of changing the registry entry and that might be an option somehow--but my primary concern is *moving* the roaming AppData back to the local drive. I don't want to create a new AppData. Is it possible just to copy it down manually without causing trouble? Maybe Windows Easy Transfer? Might be the next thing to explore. Thanks for your input--if anyone else has ideas, I'd love to hear them as well.

 

[shepe]

Copying it back is fine, if you want to make windows copy it back by itself then you need to change the GPO so that Appdata is no longer redirected, then it will give you the option for it to copy it back automatically. this wont hapen straight away and you will probably need to do a gpudpate/force on the client PC then log off and back on again. Depending on how big APPDATA is it may take a long time to log on as it will move all the files back before finishing the logon

 

[doubled822]

I've had that setting turned on for about 70 client machines for quite some time now. Our users all shut down at the end of the day and the systems wake up before the start of the day.

From what I understand, that GPO setting will not remove the existing AppData from the share--and I know that if you do "echo %appdata% under any logged-in user, it will show that AppData is in fact still looking at the share location.

I suppose the only way to tell for sure if it is copied back is to check C:\Users\user\ folder to see if it's there?

 

[shepe]

I'm 99% confident that you get a message in event viewer as well saying if it was successful or not. Based on previous experience I highly recommend that you ensure you have a good backup of the users data first

 

[doubled822]

We are fortunate to have good backups of all users' AppData due to the share. I will tinker around and see what I can come up with. Damn you Microsoft!!!! LOL